Kids’ music songwriter Justin Roberts firmly puts his faith in his audience

Justin Roberts never underestimates children. He knows they are ready for complex songs, and they are also ready for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, who has been writing quirky, imaginative children’s music for decades, will present Which Instrument Should I Play? with the CSO, conducted by Andrew Grams, on Nov. 15. The concert is a lighthearted exploration of the orchestra’s instruments, interspersed with excerpts from the symphonic repertoire and brand-new songs that Roberts wrote for the occasion.

“I write stuff that I would want to listen to as an adult,” Roberts said recently by phone. “Kids are able to take in a lot more than we give them credit for.”

As a young man, Roberts worked as a preschool teacher and played in a band on the side, but he began bringing his guitar to class and exposed the kids to Sam Cooke and the Ramones — and then to his own compositions.

“I had always been told that kids’ music should be incredibly simple, with lots of repetition,” Roberts said, “but I found that they would take in whatever I gave them.”

As his career as a children’s performer grew, Roberts found an unexpected freedom in his songwriting. “Children’s experience is human experience,” he said. “For adult pop music, there aren’t that many subjects — but writing for kids, you can make up a story about a rhinoceros.”

“I had always been told that kids’ music should be incredibly simple, with lots of repetition, but I found that they would take in whatever I gave them.” — Justin Roberts

He has been in the business long enough that some of his original fans now have children of their own, and when he played Lollapalooza this summer, he got song requests from adults who remembered his tunes. “The only age group I’m not popular with is roughly 12 to 19 years old,” he said wryly.

The Nov. 15 concert marks Roberts’ third collaboration with the CSO, beginning with a virtual video during the pandemic lockdown. For this performance, he has written a script in which he asks for advice on what instrument he should play — which becomes a handy excuse to showcase the string, woodwind, brass and percussion sections of the orchestra.

In addition to excerpts from works by Bruckner, Bartok, Ravel and more, the CSO also will play several original songs by Roberts, with titles like “If I Were a String” and “I Want to Be in Brass.”

The premise, he said, is that he wanders into a concert and interrupts it with his questions, which are patiently answered by conductor Grams. “I’m the person who doesn’t understand the orchestra, which is easy,” he said with a laugh. In fact, he lives in Evanston with his wife, Anna Steinhoff, a cellist who plays with several area Baroque orchestras.

To put together the concert, Roberts collaborated with Grams (“I’d say, ‘Andrew, say something smart about Bruckner here’ ”) and with Andrew Fox, a New York-based arranger, who orchestrated Roberts’ songs to be played by a full symphony.

The concert does not feature the songs that made Roberts popular among the school-age set, but he said, “I’ve performed a lot for kids, and I know how important it is to keep it interactive.” He will be talking to the audience, listening to their responses and encouraging them to have a good time in the formal setting (to kids, at least) of Orchestra Hall. “Hopefully they’ll see how powerful [the experience] is,” he said. “And they’ll say, ‘I want to do more of that.’ ”